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University College London deepens its presence in Dubai



UCL Provost Michael Arthur

Dubai: University College London (UCL) is looking for deeper ties with Dubai. After its students strength from UAE sees regular growth, now UCL is going for a partnership with UAE for the first time. 

Out of these three, two is on research in specific areas of health and one in urban planning and UCL’s Provost, Professor Michael Arthur will visit UAE from April 6 to 10. UCL’s current projects connected to the UAE include a partnership with Moor fields Hospital and its Dubai branch through the London-based UCL Institute of Ophthalmology, which will conduct research into eye care. This will include diabetic retinopathy, which is a major and growing concern in the UAE, Saudi Arabia and Qatar.

The UCL Institute of Immunity and Transplantation is being established at the Royal Free Hospital to bring leading scientists investigating immunity, and the research will include diseases such as diabetes and hemophilia, which are of significance in the Gulf region.
After the arrival at UAE, Arthur spoke to the press persons about the importance of UAE for UCL. He said that the Middle East is increasingly significant for UCL, which has an active alumni network of more than 260 former students in the UAE. The 70 students enrolled in UCL from the UAE is a 30 per cent increase over last year. 

UCL is one of the world’s leading universities, regularly coming very high in international rankings. The Thomson Scientific Index places UCL as the second most cited European university and 15th in the world. It was founded in 1826, making it the first English university to be founded after Oxford and Cambridge. UCL has two campuses outside Britain, in Qatar and Australia.

But still UCL did not open its branch campus in Dubai, where 21 foreign universities’ branch campus functions now. Now already five British Universities have opened its branch campus in Dubai, which is known as the biggest higher education free zone in the world. (According to Wikipedia a satellite campus or branch campus is a campus of a college or university that is physically at a distance from the original university or college area. This branch campus may be located in a different city, state, or country, and is often smaller than the main campus of an institution. The separate campuses may be under the same accreditation and share resources or they share administrations but maintain separate budgets, resources, and other governing bodies.)

The third project of significance to the UAE is through the UCL spin-off company, Space Syntax, which is based at the Bartlett Faculty of the Built Environment and is already working in Dubai to model urban development and improve future urban planning, with an eye on how to improve long-term environmental conditions.UCL is seeking to build relationships with existing organisations so as to support their work and build capacity.

Arthur was appointed UCL’s Provost in 2013, and he is the first medic to win this post. He is an award-winning hepatologist, who later ran the schools of medicine in Southampton University, before moving to be Vice-Chancellor of Leeds University for nine years.
He told media that and his own background will help him review how the extensive healthcare research taking place at UCL might be of use in the UAE.

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